Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 3

D r. Nette believes in the value of mentorship, and he defines it broadly. “For me, it includes every fragment of communication between dentists,” he says. Meeting your old instructor at the mall. The person you sit next to at a local dental meeting. “They’re all precious,” he says. As professionals, dentists tend to set their standards based on the people they work and study with, according to Dr. Nette. If your mentor has high standards, you also adopt similar standards. About 20 years ago, Dr. Nette joined a Tucker Study Club in Halifax, led by Dr. Daniel McIntosh, to learn how to work with gold. “At first it was unnerving to have someone criticize my prep or tell me how to improve the preparation that I’d just finished, decades after finishing dental school,” says Dr. Nette. “But no single person in my career influenced me as much as Danny has, in terms of setting the bar high, motivating me to aim higher, and sticking to it.” Dr. Peter Christie—whose practice in Berwick, Nova Scotia, Dr. Nette joined when he graduated from dental school in 1976—was also a mentor, even though Dr. Christie had graduated just five years earlier. “Peter had very high standards, both the quality of his dentistry and how he treated his staff and the respect he showed his patients,” says Dr. Nette. “I was very lucky that in my early, formative years, the dentists who influenced me, and helped shape the dentist I became, were wonderful.” He jokes that Dr. Christie was also a very good businessman, but “that never rubbed off on me.” Dr.AndyNette of Wolfville,NovaScotia Years intheprofession: 43 “It’s possible for someone to graduate from dental school, walk though the front door of their office and virtually disappear from the rest of the profession. That’s the worst-case scenario,” says Dr. Andy Nette. Dr. Andy Nette with Dalhousie dental students and staff at the North End Community Health Clinic (NECHC) on Gottingen Street in Halifax. (L. to r.) Victoria Guzman, Scott Bennett, Heather Hayman (Primary Care Manager, NECHC), Khashayar Pourhamzeh, Francine Leach (Dental Hygienist, NECHC), Hilary Williams, Dr. Andy Nette (Clinical Instructor, Dalhousie University, Faculty of Dentistry) I ssues and P eople